Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): Verisign Domain Name Brief : Increased Registration Filings despite pandemic outbreak
In 2022, Verisign, the global provider of domain name registry services, announced new statistical and analytical data on the level of domain name registrations. Despite the 2021-2022 COVID pandemic outbreak, data depicts that domain name registrations were considerably rising. For example, 349.9 million domain name registrations transpired during the closed third quarter of 2022. Specifically, the .com and .net TLDs had a combined total of 174.2 million domain name registrations compared to a decrease of 0.1% and 0.2 million domain name registrations in the second quarter of 2022. Given the surge of registrations, the average price of domain names and registry fees increased. The statistical data provided by Verisign reveals that despite the internal business damage done to small-business and corporations worldwide from the pandemic, such as closure and bankruptcy, due to the rise of remote and work-from-home options in demand, registrations on trademarks and domain names were relevantly rising.
In addition, new .com and.net domain name registrations totaled about 9.9 million by 2022 compared to 10.7 million domain name registrations at the end of the third quarter of 2021. The top ten ccTLDs, such as .cn, .de, .uk, .nl, .ru, .br, .au, .fr, .eu, and .it, toppled to about 132.4 million domain name registrations at the end of the third quarter of 2022, compared to decrease filings of 1.7 million domain name registrations or 1.3%. CCTLDs are estimated to increase by 5.7 million domain name registrations or 4.5% annually. In further analysis, regular filings such as these support companies by limiting common problems such as material misrepresentations, acts of deception, and limiting fraudulent practices. Following the SEC protocol, regular filing registrations allow small businesses and multinational corporations to enhance their knowledge of identity risk and provide sustaining evidence in defending interests in the face of a legal dispute.